Slumber

Chapter 1

Stacey shot up into a sitting position on her bed and looked around the room before turning on the lamp beside her. Breathing heavily she lay back down, sweat trickling down her forehead, and kicked the covers off her overheated body. One of the worst things about living in an underpaid adoption centre was its terrible air-conditioning.

"Hey, Stacey are you alright?" A feminine voice asked from the other side of the room.

"Yeah, Alex I'm alright it was just a bad dream, that's all." Stacey replied in a hoarse voice, she turned over and grabbed the glass of water next to her than drank slowly, her throat cooling quickly.

"You sure you looked like you were about to have a seizure, I was seriously just getting up to get Miss Cather." Stacey glared at Alex and turned over to face away from Alex's bed.

"Hey, what was that for?!" Alex exclaimed, her little hazel eyes shone with Oscar worthy tears.

"Just shut up Alex!!" Although Stacey was very tired and stressed about her stupid dream, she couldn't blame Alex for being curious after all she was only 11.

"I am telling Miss Crather you said a bad word!" Alex announced proudly, even though Alex's vocabulary consisted of worse words, Stacey didn't really care. A while later when Alex had stopped pestering her, Stacey fell back into a deep sleep.

***

Waking up has not always been Stacey's favourite time of her day, especially when there is nothing to look forward to, except maybe the occasional handful of people dropping by, looking for a child to adopt. Stacey knew though that if she was not at breakfast by 7:00 am sharp every weekday morning she would not be allowed to eat any more meals for the rest of the day. It sounded harsh but really it was Stacey's fault that rule had been implied. Before the rule took effect, Stacey would happily sleep in until her alarm went off to catch the bus to school, this would cause so much stress on Miss Crather that one day she had pulled Stacey aside and said to her

"Listen 'ere young lady if you cannot be up by 8:00 am from now on you will not eat for the rest of the day!" At the time Stacey thought this was grossly unfair and started to complain a lot, this however only enraged Miss Crather more and she pushed the time back to 7:00 am and added an in bed policy of 8:00 pm.

Sighing Stacey threw back her covers that had somehow found themselves back on her body the previous night and went to the bathroom to take a shower. After her quick wash, Stacey went over to the mirror do her hair. She tried multiple times to braid her long chocolate brown hair but it was too slippery to stay in for a long period of time. Finally, Stacey gave up and settled with a regular ponytail. Before she left the bathroom Stacey looked at herself one last time in the mirror. Her eyes were an abnormal rich honey colour with golden streaks throughout them, her jaw line was set in a stubborn position and her light pink lips seemed to tie together her features. Up close Stacey was very striking, but from afar she looked like another troubled teenager. Stacey walked out of the shared bathroom to get dressed, sighing when she realized she had forgotten to wash her clothes over the weekend. Stacey picked up a plain white shirt and slipped it over her head then threw on some light jeans before realizing she had 5 minutes to get out for breakfast.